His football program will be great again. His reconfigured conference is stable and poised for a long, rich future. His school's maligned TV network - the tree falling in a forest that it now is - will be the groundbreaking success he always envisioned.

The only problem, the Texas athletic director explained Friday, is others need to believe it, too.

"The biggest issue is perception," Dodds said.

And perception is where Dodds admits he, UT and the Big 12 have a problem.

When former Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby was announced as the Big 12's new commissioner last week, he said he originally had reservations about taking the post because he worried about the league's long-term future. He agreed to take the job only after becoming convinced that Texas and the league's other nine schools were unified in their commitment to making it last.

Then, after scoffing at the notion that he would be a Longhorns puppet, Bowlsby said something that made everyone from College Station to Lincoln, Neb., nod.

More Information

Longhorns summary

Big game stays in Big D

The Red River Rivalry isn't going anywhere for a while.

Texas, Oklahoma, the city of Dallas and the Texas State Fair have signed contracts to keep the annual Longhorns-Sooners football game at the Cotton Bowl through 2020, the Dallas Morning News reported Friday.

The agreement came after the city committed to making more than $25 million in improvements to the stadium. That comes after $57 million in previous expansion and renovations were completed in 2008.

UT and OU, which have played annually at the Cotton Bowl since 1932, receive $500,000 each for playing in Dallas, the Morning News reported. The Cotton Bowl's official capacity is listed at 92,100, but the game repeatedly has drawn 96,009 in recent years.

Expansion front idle

Athletic director DeLoss Dodds said Friday that despite Internet reports, the Big 12 has not had any discussions with Florida State or Clemson about joining the conference.

Dodds said while the league is open to expansion, he remains in favor of the Big 12 staying at 10 teams for the foreseeable future.

But Dodds said that doesn't mean UT is stomping on cars and knocking over buildings. With the Big 12 having committed to a 13-year granting of TV rights and with a new TV contract poised to pay each member in the range of $20 million per year, the days of infighting are over, Dodds said.

And in the meeting rooms, whether the discussion is about expansion (which Dodds said the league is not considering) or any other topic, he said Texas' voice is one of 10.

"We don't bully, nobody's our puppet," Dodds said. "We have opinions, we have strong opinions, but so does everybody else.

"I was part of forming the Big 12. I've been part of holding the Big 12 together. My agenda is to help keep it that way."

That agenda is not without its potential pitfalls. The conference continues to battle doubts, even as looming changes to the Bowl Championship Series - which is considering a four-team playoff and expected to no longer give any league automatic-qualifier status beyond 2014 - make conference affiliation less important.

Better selling job

Dodds said the Big 12 needs to do a better job of proving its long-term viability.

"People would like to be able to cut us apart," he said. "We have to sell our market."

The other thing Dodds is selling is the Longhorn Network, for which ESPN is paying Texas $300 million over 20 years but has yet to be carried by major cable and satellite providers. In part to create more leverage with those companies, Dodds said, LHN could broadcast as many as three UT football games (two non-conference and one conference) this fall.

Last year, Texas received widespread complaints when most fans weren't able to watch two games broadcast on LHN. Dodds said he is prepared for more outrage if the network isn't picked up in time for this year's three games.

But he said he also understands the best way for ESPN to negotiate distributorship is to offer programming viewers covet.